Car construction



' v I I APPLICATION FILYED Amaze, I922. 1,437,441. k

1. AfPILCHER.

CAR CONSTRUCTION.

Patented ec. 5,1922.

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IN V EN TOR.

ATTORNEY J. A. PILCHER.

CAR CONSTRUCTION.

APPLICATION FILED APR-26, I922.

Patented Dec. 5, 1922..

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A =5 2 R. 5 92.. M P A N l H o J Y B A TTORNE Y.

Patented Dee. i922;

JOHN A. PILGHER, 0F ROANOKE, VIRGINIA.

can oonsraoorron.

Application filed April 26, 1922. Serial No. 556,651.

struction, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in car construction, and has among its 'obyects to provide an arrangement of car body and car door wherein the doors may be held shut in a simple and direct manner, and by means of a mechanism that will not extend beyond the clearance limits to which it is necessary to work in designing modern railway equipment. I

nother ob 'ect is to provide, in combination with a side dump car, a door arrangement wherein the doors will be held shut by means of a simple mechanism that may be readily released when it is desired to, dis- I charge the lading from the car.

' Another object is to provide a railway car having a series of hoppers along its sides with spaces between these hoppers, which will be outside of the lading cavity of the car, and to arrange within these cavities, and secured directly to the end walls of the hoppers, door retaining devices which may be operated to release or close a single door without allowingthe discharge of the contents of the car from any other door.

It is necessary in cars of this character that the doors be held firmly shut, and to this end, it is desirable'to support each door from both ends thereof. It is also desirable in many instances that but one door at a timebe opened to permitthe discharge of the lading. One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a car and door device constructed to meet these conditions.

'With such general andv other more specific objects in view, the invention consists of the formation, combination and arrangement of parts as will be herein described and particularly claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, which show a preferred embodiment of the invention, Figure 1 is a' fragmentary side elevational view of a car body constructed in accordance with the principles of the present. invention. Figure 2 is a fragmentary transverse vertical section through the same, this view being taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1. Figure 3 is a partial end elevational view of a car of the same construction, this figure belng drawn to a reduced scale over that of Figures 1 and 2. Figure 4 is a longitudinal vertical section taken through a port on of the door-securing mechanism, this now being taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 2, Figure 5 is a transverse horizontal sectional view, this view being taken approximately on the line 5-5 of Figure 2.

Referring now to these drawings, the car is shown as having sides 1 with outwardly swinging doors 3 pivoted to the car body,

the hinge edges of the doors being near the.

lower edges of the car sides 1, and the outwardly swinging free edges thereof being near the rail. These doors extend longitudinally of the car body and are hinged thereto at 2, body hinge plates such as 6 bemg employed. These hinge plates may be afiixed to any suitable part of the car body, the intent in the present embodiment being that the lowermost edges of the side plates 1 shall be pressed, while hot, into the necessary shape to conform to and form seats for these hinge plates, aswell as for the usual side stakes which are applied to such car bodies. 'llhe portion of the side plate 1 against which the hinge plates 6 seat may lie in a different plane from the general plane of the car side and preferably" the hinge plates 6 are located near the lower ends of the side stakes and these hinge plates are preferably between the lower ends of the side stakes, so that the load from the hinge plates 6 may be transferred to the side stakes without undue straining of the car side plate, or of the portion of the car structure to which the hinge plates 6 are applied.

In Figure 3, one of these doors is shown in closed position and another door is shown in partially open position. The slope sheet 4 of the car is constructed in sloping fashion to provide discharge hoppers along each side of the car, the doors 3 b eing arranged to .close the outwardly facing openings, of these hoppers. This hopper construction permits the discharge of the lading of the car to points alongside of the track. A plurality of these hoppers, which are indicated at 5, are formed along each side of the car, each hopper opening being closed by an individual door 3. The aforesaid hinge plates such as (inlay be secured, as by means of rivets 7, to the side of the car body, with co-o crating hinges such as 8 afiixed to each oor as by means of. rivets 9. Hinge pintles, such as, 10, may be utilized for connecting the door and body hinges, these pintle rods preferably extending continuously for all the hinges of a door and lying longitudinally of the car along the outer face of the car sideQ Between adjacent hoppers there is formed a cavity 11, this cavity being defined by hopper and sheets such as 12. The end sheet 12 of one hopper is spaced somewhat from the adjacent end sheet 12 of the next hopper, so that the cavity 11 is thereby produced. The end sheets 12 may be brought together above the cavity 11 as at 13,-and be there connected in any desired manner to form a hood over the cavity.

The door 3 of each hopper covers the full face of the hopper opening and the ends of the door plate preferably extend slightly beyond the end limits of the hopper opening, so as to overlap the edges of the hopper opening to prevent loss of lading from im-' perfectly fitted doors. Extending across the outer face of each door and near the lower edge of the same is a stiffening member 14.

. These members are in the present embodiment formedof channel irons which are secured to the door plates by means of rivets 15. These channels do not extend for quite the full length of the door plate, and secured to the ends of the same are short lengths of angle iron 16, securing rivets such 1 as 17 passing through these angles and the channels 14 of the door plates. These angles extend outwardly at each end of the doors to slightly beyond the edges of the doors, so that the projecting ends constitute locking faces, which may be engaged by suitable door supporting means. By this construction, the doors may be supported at each end, and near the lower edges of the doors, the hinges at the tops of the doors constituting eflicient securing means for the upper edges of the doors. This construction is economical in cost, especially where the device is applied to old'cars.

The road clearances limit the width of the car near the rail to such an extent that great care must be taken in the construction of the parts, if the lading space of the car is to be carried out to reasonable lines. In the present construction the stiffening member 14 is formed of a structural channel with its back laid against the outer face of the door and with its two flanges outstanding from the door. The angles 16 need not have so great a moment of resistance as the channel 14, as the latter spans a reater dis tance and is accordingly subjecte to greater bulging moments. The single outstandin leg of-the angle 16 is sutficient to meet the duty imposed upon it, as compared with the two outstanding portions of the channel 14. At the same time the parts are kept within reasonable clearance limits.

g quently employed for this purpose.

' the doors In order that the doors may be properly supported in closed position, a door supporting hook 18 is pivoted upon the outer face of each end sheet of each hopper. These hooks lie substantially against the loutet' faces of these end sheets, and swing upwardly' along these sheets to release the doors and downwardly to engage thelocking faces on the doors for holding'the latter shut. A suitable pivoting bracket such as 19 may be used, and the pawl or cam 22 may be utilized to hold the locks in engagement with the doors. The brackets, together with the hooks and the pawls, may be held in operative association and be affixed to the hopper e'nd sheets by means of suitably arranged rivets such as 20. There are thus direct connections between the hopper end sheets and the doors, so that, by the absence of intervening parts, there is less likelihood of failure of the parts to function as desired to hold the doors tightly against the hopper mouths.

It will be noted. that the pivot pins of the hooks 18 are set back somewhat from the side of the car, and that the end of the hooks project only a small amount beyond the outer face of the hopper. This keeps the door securing mechanism within the close limits required where third rail electric clearances must be observed. At the same time, by arranging the door securing mechanisms within the cavities. 11, and especially by applying a securing member upon each end sheet of each hopper, the doors may be held securely shut by a very inexpensive device that connects the door directly to the member, (the end plate of the hioppetr) against which the fit is desired. At the same time, any door may be released without the release of the other doors. The road clearances above referred to are at the same time observed, and the use of complicated inside winding arrangements or other expensive means for effecting these results are avoided.

door hooks 18 accessible without the necessity of making the cavities 11 of great width.

The construction; an embodiment of which is thus described, constitutes an extremely simple and reliable means of see curing the doors of side dumpcars, and avoids the complicated rigging that is fre- In 0 crating the present device it is only mace sary to push the doors shut with the foot, when the hooks will drop into position behind the upright legs of the angles 16, and will be held effectively shut. To

release the doors it is only necessary torotate the cams to a suitable position, when the hooks 18 may be driven up and the weight of the lading behind the doors will cause them to swing open, permitting the discharge of the contents of the cars desired.

I have thus described an embodiment of my invention. Other embodiments are contemplated within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the same. 7

What is claimed is:

1. A railway car having a plurality of individual hoppers formed along each side thereof, hopper end sheets defining the end limits of the individual hoppers, the end sheets of adjacent hoppers being spaced slightly from each other to form cavities between the hoppers, doors hinged to the hoppers along the upper edges thereof, a door-securing hook ,for each end of each door, the same being pivoted against the outer faces of the end sheets of the corre-.

sponding hopper and beingdisposed within the said cavities, and brackets overlying the 1 said hooks and secured to the hopper end sheets.

2. A railway car having a plurality of individual hoppers formed along each side thereof, hopper end sheets defining the end limits of the individual hoppers, the end sheets of adjacent hoppers being spaced slightly from each other to form cavities between the hoppers, doors hinged to the hoppers along the upper edges thereof, and a door securing hook for each end of each door, the same being pivoted upon the end sheets of the corresponding hoppers and disposed within the said cavlties.

3. A railway car having a plurality of individual hoppers formed alon each side thereof, hopper end sheets defimng the end limits of the individual hoppers, the end sheets of adjacent hoppers being spaced slightly from each other to form cavities between the hoppers, doors hinged to the hoppers along the upper edges thereof and arranged to swing outwardly into open position, door-securing members for each end of each door, the same being pivoted upon the outer faces of the hopper end sheets and w thereof, arranged to over-reach the ends of the said hoppers, the same being formed for co-operation with the said door-securing members.

4. A railway car having a plurality of individual hoppers formed along each side thereof, hopper end sheets defining the end limits of the individual hoppers, the end sheets of adjacent hoppers being spaced slightly from each other to form cavities between the hoppers, doors hinged to the hoppers along the upper edges thereof and arranged to swing outwardly into open position, the ends of said doors slightly overreaching the ends of the corresponding hoppers, door-securing members for each end of each door the same being arranged for move ment along the outer faces of the hopper end sheets, and being pivotally associated between the ends of the doors and the hopper end sheets in such'manner as to hold for release the doors, the said door-securing members lying in planes substantially within the normal-limits of swing of the doors, and the doors being notched out at their ends to clear said door-securing members.

5. A railway car having a hopper formed along one side thereof near the bottom .of the car, a-door hinged to the car above the hopper and arranged to be swung outwardly from the hopper opening into open position, means operatively associated between the door and the ends of the hopper for holding the door in closed position against the mouth of the hopper, said means including a stifi'ening member secured to the door near the lower edge thereof, the same being formed of a channel section with the flanges thereof extending outwardly from the door, and, flanged arms also secured to the door,

'the Same extending beyond the end limits of the door and being arran ed for co-operation with door securing mem ers carried by the JOHN A. PILCHER. 

